Percy Jackson and the Avengers: The Big Confusion
by booklover613
Summary: when the Avengers come to help the demigods fight Jotuns/ Hyperboreans, everyone gets confused, and one Avenger reveals that they are a demigod. Percy doesnt get along with him. This story has now been edited! (finally) Slightly different ending.
1. i get hit by a flying hammer

When I had found out that all the Greek myths were true, I figured that the greeks were the only ones with their gods still out there. But, as usual, I was wrong.

The day had started out as any other. It was the summer after the attack on Manhattan, and with all the new campers and cabins, we still were adjusting to camp's new size. But more campers meant being on watch less often. Chiron had announced the new guard system at the beginning of the summer. Ever since the past summer's attack, monsters were constantly banging against the camp's protective shield, and some of the monsters were so ancient, they were able to get through. I had asked Annabeth what age had to do with ability to get through the barrier, but after a ten minute speech on "strength of age" and "power of previous knowledge", I was sorry I'd asked.

As a senior counselor, I was on duty more often, but I got to choose who I was on guard with. So there Annabeth and I were, on a hot July day, patrolling the top of Half Blood Hill, looking for any nasties who wanted to take a bite out of camp. And sure enough, halfway into our watch, ten Hyperborean giants appeared on the hill.

The attack caught even Annabeth by surprise. Not the attack itself, but the amount of giants. One or two of the old frosties had made their way to camp before, but ten at once? They must have been getting more organized. Annabeth whipped out the conch shell horn, and blew a pattern that alerted everyone of an attack. And without waiting for the backup, we rushed into battle. Oops.

In the beginning, I thought we were doing pretty well. Annabeth, and the ten campers who ran to join us, and I, were killing giant after giant. But somehow, we never seemed to kill them all. More and more Hyperboreans kept on appearing, almost out of thin air. The only warning that we had before one popped up was a Hyperborean sized blue light that appeared, and the giant stepped out of. We had never seen anything like it.

"We need more campers!" I yelled to Annabeth, as I dodged a giant's icy breath. "There's too many of them!" I slashed wildly with my sword, and there was blue blood everywhere, but there seemed no end to the attack. I kept on fighting, but there was too many of them to keep track of. Before I knew it, two of the Hyperboreans had cornered me and were pushing me back against Thalia's tree. I turned to find Peleus, but he was lashing out at another giant on the other side of the tree.

One of the giants laughed, but before it could use it's icy breath on me, a giant hammer flew out of nowhere and hit the giant in the chest. The other giant stumbled back dumbly, in shock.  
A man with long blond hair and an even longer red cape suddenly jumped in front of me. "Die, Jotun!" he yelled in a deep, heavily accented voice. Who was this guy? And what in Hades's name was a Jotun? I was about to ask the man, then thought better of it, and ran to rejoin the battle.

As I fought, I noticed more non-demigods in the fight. A robot in an red suit was flying up overhead, sending out beams of light from his palms. A man in red, white, and blue holding a shield was shooting the Hyperboreans with a small gun, and I tried on to laugh. As if his puny gun could kill one of the huge giants. But he was pummeling the giants with his shield too, which seemed to be doing some good. I spotted a few other adults, but didn't have any time to really see what they were doing.

Suddenly, from behind me, appeared one of the most monstrous things I had ever seen, which is really saying something. I was maybe fifteen feet tall, green, and all muscle. Its face was strangely humanoid, though. I turned to Annabeth, who had at some point come to fight next to me.  
"What in the gods name is that thing?" I yelled into her ear.  
"I'm not sure." She yelled back. "I can't remember ever reading about any monster like this one."  
That scared me even more then the actual monster. If Annabeth had never heard of it, then we were in real trouble.  
"Lets concentrate on killing it now, and as Chiron what it is later."  
Annabeth nodded. "Good plan, seaweed brain." And we charged.

But as I was about to swing my sword, I noticed that instead of attacking us, the monster was using its massive fists to pummel the Hyperboreans. It wasn't even paying any attention to the two of us. Annabeth had noticed that too, and I saw her hesitate. I shrugged.  
"If it's on our side, we might as well leave it be. We can use all the help we can get!" She nodded and we went back to killing giants.

I honestly can't remember how long we were on top of that hill, hacking away at the ice giants. I was aware that more campers had joined the fight, but they didn't seem to help. As I fought, I saw more and more campers frozen in ice, their arms clenching swords, javelins, and other weapons.  
"We have to fall back!" I shouted, but I didn't think anyone heard me through all the chaos. But it didn't really matter, because soon we would have nowhere to back up to except for into the camp's borders. It was a complete miracle that the giants hadn't made it into the camp already.

Just as I was about to give up hope, the entire hill lit up with a blue, green light. In a flash, all the giants disappeared. I nearly fell over in shock.  
"Old magic." I heard Annabeth whisper next to me.  
"Who cares what it was?" I exclaimed. "Who are these people?"  
As soon as I asked the question, one of the adults appeared next to me. He had shoulder length black hair, and was faintly glowing the exact color of the light that had lit up the hill only moments before.  
"I am Loki," he proclaimed, "and I am burdened by glorious purpose." He smiled, as if that was a perfect explanation to who he was, and how he had gotten here. I was going to ask for some information that was actually helpful in some way, but Annabeth had gone pale next to me.  
"Oh, gods. We have to tell Chiron now. This is NOT good."  
"What's not good?" I asked, confused. "Who are these people?" Annabeth just shook her head, and ran back to camp, presumably to get Chiron. Not having anything else to do, I turned back to the man who was apparently "burdened by glorious purpose", but he had disappeared. I made my way across the hill, surveying the damage and tallying up the block of iced count. How were we ever going to get all these campers down the hill so they could defrost safely?

I soon found Clarisse standing next to me. "Any idea who these people are?" I asked her. She shrugged. "No idea. But I'm sure Chiron will want to find out. And some of them are already trying to get into camp."  
I nodded, noticing the guy with the cape that I had seen earlier trying to break down the invisible shield with his hammer, and the green monster banging on it with his fists. I took a deep breath, and yelled, "I, Percy Jackson, give you.."  
But before I could finish, the iron robot landed next to me and announced in a metallic-y voice, "I, Tony Stark, give you permission to enter camp."

As thunder shook the hill and the man with the cape and the green giant tumbled down into camp, I stared at the robot in utter shock. But before I could say anything, Chiron galloped to meet us, with Annabeth at his side. The robot's gold plate on its headed immediately retracted, revealing a face underneath. The man ran to great Chiron. As they met, the man in the suit of armor bowed a little before shaking my teacher's hand.  
"Chiron, it's been a while." He said, grinning.  
"Indeed, Tony." Chiron smiled kindly, the way he looks at the new campers when they get their first bulls-eye. "You've been busy, I see. We have much to discuss. Follow me." And with that, Chiron cantered back into camp, leaving me, Annabeth, and 'Tony' to follow him.


	2. i meet a demidemigod

I meet a Demi-Demigod: (and no, that's not a typo)

I looked around the ping-pong table in the pool house. Sitting around it was probably the strangest group of people I've ever seen, even weirder than the council of the gods at the summer and winter solstices.

Right after the attack, Chiron had called a war council, so the entire story only had to be explained once. So here we were: Me, Annabeth, Nico, Grover, Rachel, all the other senior councilors, Chiron, Mr. D, and the newcomers. And gods, were they a weird group.

Tony, the dude in the red suit, had taken of the suit of armor, revealing a regular suit underneath, as if he'd come straight from a meeting on wall street. He was leaning back in his chair, looking right at home. The giant green guy that Annabeth and I had decided not to attack had morphed into a regular guy at some point, and was now looking around the room in interest. He was a small guy, quiet looking. A far cry from the monster he'd been only 15 minutes earlier. The man who had introduced himself as Loki and flying hammer guy were sitting next to each other, discussing who-knows-what intently, as they peered at each of us campers suspiciously. It didn't even sound like they were speaking English. Not that I was listening, of course. The two of them kept glaring at Mr. D though, so I figured they couldn't be too bad. As long as they weren't here to kill us, of course. The man in red white and blue had kept on his spangled outfit and still had his massive shield resting at his side, but he had removed his cowl, revealing a kind and trusting face. That made me wary of him immediately. After a while in the half-blood world, you learn that the most trustworthy looking people are the most dangerous. Trust me, I know.

The only two people that seemed slightly normal were a man and a woman, both dressed in all black. The man had a bow slung across his shoulder, and the woman's belt held numerous gun holsters, and when she took off her jacket, she revealed a bunch more. They were trying to look comfortable, but I could see they seemed wary. Who wouldn't be? They were sitting in between a half man/half white stallion, and Mr. D, who was changing the color of his coke zero out of boredom.

"Hem hem." I heard Chiron clear his throat. "Thank you all for coming so quickly. I know that you all want to find out what is going on."

"Yeah!" interjected Clarisse, "Who are these guys, and what gives them to elbow in on OUR fight?" Being the daughter of Ares, Clarisse could sometimes get a bit personal about who helps her in a fight. Ok, sometimes more that a little.

"That will all be explained, dear child." Chiron said. "Tony, why don't you start by introducing yourself."  
We all turned to the man who only a few minutes before been flying around overhead in a red suit. He stood up, and introduced himself as if we were at the first day of school.  
"Hi, my name is Tony Stark, I live in New York, my favorite flavor of ice cream is chocolate, and for fun I like to save the world."  
Chiron cleared his throat again. "While that was very enlightening Tony, I think that everyone here who doesn't know who you are would like to find out how you got into camp."  
"He's a demigod." I heard Rachel say from the other side of the table. I turned to face our local oracle. She had a quizzical look on her face. "It's confusing, though. Neither of your parents are gods, yet you have the blood of the gods within you. A lot of it, actually."  
Tony wore a shocked look, though he was obviously trying to conceal it. "And she knew that how?"  
Chiron sighed. "She's the oracle, Tony."  
Tony laughed. "You finally got rid of that old hippy? Thank the gods!"  
I turned to stare at him. It was strange to see a person I would normally think was a mortal to say gods instead of God.  
Tony spoke up again. "Let me clarify then. I am the first, and I think currently the only, child of two demigods." He turned to Chiron. "Still the only one?" he asked. Chiron nodded, and he grinned. "Yes! I love being unique! But anyways, yeah, my father was a son of Zeus, and my mom was a daughter of Aphrodite. But, I've also got a blessing from Hephaestus under my belt. So, while all you regular demigods have only 1 god looking out for you, I've got three."

I turned to Chiron. There was no way this was true. But Chiron just nodded. "He is telling the truth. How did he put it when he went to camp here? Ah, yes. He said 'I'm too awesome for one cabin.'"

The man with the shield rolled his eyes. "Now that sounds like the Stark we know. I'm Steve Rogers, and human. Err, mostly human." Chiron clip clopped over to him. "The man lost in time. It is an honor to meet you." They shook hands firmly.

"If you could teach someone like Stark, then you have my deepest respect."

"Yeah, yeah, this is great." Nico interrupted. "But who are those guys?" she pointed to Mr. Glorious Purpose and flying hammer guy. "And what is that guy?" she asked as she pointed to the man who had transformed into a giant green thing.

"Asguardians." Answered Mr. D. "The two men, not the creature."  
"I am a person, you know!" the man in question tried to argue. But no one was paying much attention. A bunch of the campers began murmuring amongst themselves, and Chiron seemed a bit nervous.  
"I am Thor!" flying hammer guy roared.  
"Yes," Mr. D sighed, "I know. Nice to see you. Now please stop shouting. Loki, please control your brother."  
I stared at Mr. D. "You know these guys?"  
"Unfortunately, yes." He drawled. "This genius," he pointed to Thor, "once decided to challenge Zeus to a thunder duel." He smirked. "I don't think that ended well for you, did it, Asguardian?" I could see Thor struggling against his brother, trying to grab Mr. D. I knew the feeling.  
Loki spoke up. "You would do well not to anger my brother. Unless you would like a rematch, with you taking the place of your chief god." Thunder rumbled in a distance and purple fire blazed in Mr. D's eyes as he rose.  
"You dare challenge me? In my own home? This is our planet! Stop bringing your creatures here. We've had enough of your Chitauri and Jotuns threatening our home!"

By now, Mr. D had lost most of the table, and for a minute, everyone was silent.

Then one of the Stole brothers broke the silence. "Can anyone hear please explain who these people are and what they are doing here, in plain English?"  
Strangely, it was Loki who answered. "My brother and I are gods from the planet Asgard. Thor's father, and my adopted father, is Odin, the chief Norse god. As for why we are here, we just saved your sorry souls from some ice giants from Jotunheim. No need to thank us."  
I raised my hand slowly, hoping that these gods weren't as quick to anger as the Greek gods. "Umm, weren't those things Hyperboreans?"  
Thor grunted. "They have many names, but the creatures are the same. The Hyperboreans are a tribe of lesser intelligence who settled on Midguard centuries ago."

"Ok," I said, "let me see if I got all this. You," I pointed at Mr. Stark, "are the grandkid of Aphrodite and Zeus, with a blessing from Hephaestus. You two," I moved my finger to the two gods, "are Norse gods from a different planet, and you," I pointed at Mr. Rodgers, "are some guy dressed as Captain America. But I still don't know who you, you, and you are." I finished, pointing at the green monster guy, and the two normal adults.

Mr. Stark went around the table introducing everyone. "The quiet guy who you all very nicely insulted is Dr. Bruce Banner. The thing you saw before was the Hulk. I'm sure Brucey is sorry you had to meet him." Dr. Banner nodded, but didn't say anything.

"That old-timer," Mr. Stark jerked a thumb to Mr. Rogers, who was sitting next to him, "actually is Captain America, and yes, he's the same guy from the time of World War II, and no, please don't ask how he survived all these years, he can tell you himself later."

"Those two," he jerked his head to the pair dressed in black, "are both assassins, and the only human people on the team. Try not the make them angry, they bite." The woman rolled her eyes.

"Team?" Annabeth asked.  
"Oh, yeah, that's the one detail I forgot to mention." Mr. Stark stood up. "We're the Avengers. Nice to meet you. Oh, and can I use the forges? My suit got ice in some of the cracks, and I've been meaning to add some celestial bronze to the gloves for ages. Thanks, and no need to show me the way; I know how to get there." And with that, he strode out of the room.  
Mr. Rogers turned to Chiron. "Do you mind if we stay a bit? We need to rest, and I don't think Stark has any intention of leaving any time soon."  
Chiron smiled. "I don't mind. Stay as long as you need. We are honored by your presence." He said, bowing to the intruding gods. "I hope you don't mind if the campers will be asking you a few questions, though. I am sure they are all eager to talk to you." Mr. D's eyes still glowed, but he said nothing. So it was settled. Our camp had been invaded by a bunch of freaky, and very un-Greek, adults. Well, there's a first time for everything, I thought.


	3. the title is too long to fit here sorry

I Have an Underwater Conversation with a Robot and Then Attempt to Blast Him Out of the Air:

Despite the weirdness of the situation, the "Avengers" seemed to fit right into camp. The guy dressed in black with the bow, whose name I learned was Clint, immediately fell into a conversation with Will Solace from the Apollo cabin. I could hear them discussing different types of arrows and their speeds.

His partner, who's name was apparently Natasha, somehow wound up talking to Clarisse, who evidently got over her anger at the strangers as soon as Natasha showed interest in Clarisse's electric spear. She had asked for a demonstration, and Clarisse was happy to oblige, finding nothing wrong with demonstrating its power on the woman herself. I grinned. I had seen Natasha briefly during the fight, and seen with how much force she had beat up the Hyperboreans/Jotuns. A fight between the two of them was one I didn't want to miss.

I didn't see much point in fawning over the mortals, or the Norse gods. Most people, though, found no shame in literally stalking them. I saw a constant stream of people walking towards the forges, where Tony Stark was still working. Apparently, he was both a demigod celebrity and a mortal one. I guess his iron man suit was famous. I wouldn't really know. These days, I spent more and more time in camp. Annabeth had practically moved in, too. I loved spending more time at camp, don't get me wrong, but I kinda missed my Mom and Paul. Before, I at least had a normal life on the side. Now, it was all crazy hecticness, all the time.

I decided to head to the arena to blow off some steam. The Captain America guy was there, having a go at the practice dummies we had set up in one corner. I ignored him and went to the other side of the arena, so I could fight invisible opponents in peace. It was kinda weird to think that the guy who I'd read comics about when I was eight was alive and still in good shape. How old was the guy by now? Well into his nineties, at least. But there he was, punching the living daylights out of a dummy. It was weird. What was weirder was that he seemed to be avoiding the attention from the campers. He seemed almost embarrassed by it. Maybe he just hadn't gotten used to being famous yet. One would think 70 years was enough time to get adjusted.

I watched him fight for a while. He was striking blow after blow on the dummy, barely breaking a sweat. The dummy, on the other hand, was losing most of its stuffing.  
"Do you have something against that dummy?" I called to him, as I walked over to where he was.  
The Captain seemed startled, almost as if I'd woken him up from a dream. He looked at what he had done to the dummy, and sighed.  
"I guess I got a bit carried away. Sorry for ruining it."  
I laughed. "It's ok, we've got tons more. But would you rather fight with a real partner? I want to see how strong that shield of yours really is. And my sword will pass right through you, anyways.  
Rogers grinned a bit. "I would like to fight against a real person. You don't mind fighting fists on sword?"  
I shrugged. "It's nothing I haven't done before. No offense. And also, I have this handy dandy protection thing where I sorta can't get injured."  
He stared. "That's useful." But before I could even respond, he picked up his shield and attacked. I grinned. This was gonna be fun.

It was good fight, and I had been duly impressed. The captain's shield was able to withstand a hard blow from celestial bronze, and the man's fists were like steel. In the end, we had declared a tie. I had gotten sweaty, and decided to head to the lake for a swim. The captain barely even broke a sweat, so I left him to his boxing and left the arena.

As I walked through camp, I saw more of the superhuman talking with campers. Annabeth was in the middle of an intense conversation with Loki about different types of magic. Through the windows of the Big House, I could see Chiron, Mr. D, and a nervous looking satyr playing cards with Thor. I felt bad for the poor guy. The satyr, not Thor. I couldn't imagine playing cards with three immortals, two of them with a temper. I did NOT want to get anywhere near that game. So far, the only adult who I hadn't seen was Dr. Banner. I guess no one wanted to talk to big green and scary.

By the time I had made it to the lake, the sun was setting. It had been a long day, and I was thankful for the layer of quiet surrounding the lake. I walked into the lake and immediately sun to the bottom. I sat there a while, glad for the lack of disturbances.  
Suddenly, my peace and quiet was disturbed by something red and gold that definitely should not be in the water. I looked up, annoyed, and stared at it for a minute before realizing that it was Stark, our local celebrity, in his iron man suit. He seemed to be swimming towards me. What did he want from me?

The man came and sat down next to me, not saying anything. After a minute, he spoke up and said in a slightly disembodied voice "I heard about last summer. I'm sorry I wasn't here to help."  
I turned to the man. Robot. Thing. "Where were you? We were all fighting for our lives, and we needed all the help we could get. We definitely could have used something like that suit."  
Stark sighed, which sounded really strange underwater. His metallic face swiveled to face me. "I know, I wish I could have been there. Unfortunately, I didn't even hear about the battle until after I came back. I had been trapped in a cave in Afghanistan with a bunch of terrorists for three months. When I came back and heard that the battle in the Great Prophecy had happened while I was away, I got mad at myself. I wish I had been there to kill the monsters myself. When I heard what happened to Beckendorf, I didn't know what to do with myself. He was like a little brother to me."  
I stared at him in amazement. "You knew Beckendorf?"  
He snorted. "Ok course I knew Beckendorf. He came to camp in the middle of one of my last years here. He was only 7 or 8 years old at the time, and was instantly the cutest kid on campus. Course, he didn't like being known as 'the cute kid'. He wanted to seem tougher. I was the one who came up with calling him Beckendorf instead of Charlie."  
"I'd always wondered who came up with that idea. I always thought it was Beckendorf himself." I mused aloud.  
"Nope. That was my geniousness at work."  
"Like this?" I gestured to the suit.  
The suit nodded, if that was possible. "Its powered by an arc reactor in my chest. My father created the original reactor, but I designed the miniature one when I was in captivity. This thing keeps me alive." He tapped the glowing triangle on his chest.  
"Your dad, the son of Zeus?"  
"Yup. Anyone ever tell you how World War II was a fight with the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, the kids of Hades on the other?" I nodded. "Well, my dad was one of those children of Zeus. He helped create the atomic bomb."  
I stared at him. "No wonder the big three made a pact to have no more kids. Were all of them as powerful as your dad?"  
He ignored my question and simply said, "And that pact worked out really well, obviously."  
I stood up quickly and assumed a fighting stance. "That's my father you're talking about. Everyone thinks you're so special because you have 2 godly grandparents, and a separate godly blessing, but to me, you're just a man in a suit of armor who didn't show up to help when we needed it. You didn't see what the battle was like. You say you're sorry about Beckendorf, but if you really were, you would have been here to help. Kronos was tearing Olympus down, brick by brick. I nearly died," my voice shook, "and I had close friends who did. So I suggest you BACK OFF!"  
"Calm down, calm down." He said, moving his arms in a calming motion. I lowered my arms slowly, but didn't sit back down. I still glared at the man in the red suit before me. "And you really shouldn't really talk. Where was Camp Half-blood last month, when the Chituari were attacking Manhattan? It was the five of us against an entire army, and crazy as a bag of cats Reindeer Games! Where were you then?"  
I shook my head. "Don't you think I wanted to go? That was my home they were destroying. My mom and step-dad were at home that day, just a few blocks from where those alien things, the Chituari or whatever you call them, stopped attacking. All of us at camp begged Chiron to go, but all he said was 'other problems, other gods. It's best we stay separate.' And that was the end of discussion. I wasn't about to go against Chiron."  
Stark raised his eyebrows. "You're gonna tell me that you never disobeyed Chiron before?" he asked with an amused smile.  
"That's not the point!" I shot back. "We had no clue what was going on there. You knew about the Great Prophecy. You knew how it was all going to end. And you WEREN'T THERE!"  
"Look, kid," he growled, "I came to camp to save your sorry buts. A little thanks would be in order. I already explained that I was in a cave in Afghanistan fighting for MY LIFE. There was nothing I could do! Now stop this, or else thing will get ugly. I don't have much of a patience, especially for a kid like you."  
At that point, I just lost it. "And so you waited all this time to come back here? We've been battling monsters all summer! And what about the past years? The battle of the labyrinth? When the camp was threatened and Chiron was fired? When Artemis was captured? Where were you then? And I AM NOT A KID!"  
Stark stood up and leveled his right palm towards my face . "Can't say I didn't warn you kid." He growled. I heard a high pitched whining noise, and a beam of light shot out from his palm.  
Instantly, I was blown back a couple of yards or so. I stood up, straitened my shirt, and sped back to where Stark was standing, shocked. "I told you- I'm not a kid." I said, and raised my arms.  
All around me, water started swirling, until I was encased in a ball of water. I rose slowly higher and higher, until I broke through the surface of the water, hovering a few feet in the air. Stark had regained his senses enough to fly out of the water, and stood at a cautious distance, waiting to see what I would do.  
"Scared?" I jeered. Then I threw my ball of water.  
As it soared towards the flying demigod, the water molded into sharp needles that should have tore right through the armored suit. But when the barrage had ended, Stark just looked wet. "I'm not that easily hurt either, Auqaman." A piece of iron slid off his right shoulder, revealing rows of sleek looking bullets. Even from here, I could tell from their sheen that they were have metal, half Celestial bronze. The last weapon I had seen like that was Kronos's scythe. How had Stark made those? Before I could come up with an answer, he launched a row of them at me. I stood directly in the line of fire, waiting to see his face when they deflecting off of me, which of course they did. I watched the man, whishing I could see his face behind the mask, as each one of his bullets pinged off my chest and landed in the water with tiny, perfect, splashes.  
The man flew towards me, slowly, cautiously. "Did I just see what I think I just saw?" I nodded.  
"Yup. Still think you can beat me?"  
Stark laughed. The man had the nerve to laugh. "You took a bath in the Styx?" I nodded. "Wow, Jackson, you got guts. I've got to give you that." I noticed that he called me Jackson, not kid.  
"So you're not going to fight me?" I asked, not surprised.  
"Nah, its no fun. This suit is practically indestructible, and so are you. But I have a different idea. You guys still playing capture the flag?"  
I grinned. Now that would be fun. "I'll talk to Chiron." I promised. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.


	4. Once again, title is too long

So I know that a lot of you already read and finished this story. But after FORVER I finally edited the heck outta this thing (and it still needs more editing, I know, I know). But when i was fixing the last chapter I remembered how much I hated the way I ended it. SO! I fixed the ending a bit. hope you guys like it!

* * *

Capture the Flag Gets Stepped Up a Few Notches, and We Get a New Staff Member (and we hope this one doesn't have an ulterior motive):

"Percy, are you sure this is a good idea?" Annabeth asks as I strap on my armor.  
"Sure, why not?" I answer with a grin. "It'll be fun!" Annabeth just shook her head and sighed.  
After my 'showdown' with Mr. "too awesome for one cabin', we went to Chiron and gave him my idea. A huge, blowout, capture the flag game, with the entire camp vs. the Avengers. Originally, we wanted to split up the camp and the Avengers, but they would just spend all their time fighting each other, and that would be no fun at all.  
So here we were, 150 or so campers, versus one super soldier, two gods, two accomplished assassins, and one demigod with an ego problem. The big, green, and scary doctor decided to abstain, for obvious reasons. He was acting as battle side medic, along with Chiron. I think he was a bit relieved not to have to morph into 'the other guy' as Dr. Banner called him.  
"Heroes, and, ummm, Avengers. Gather round!" Chiron called. "These are the rules. You may not spill blood. You may use magical items, but please, Thor, refrain from injuring anyone too much with your hammer. If any rules are broken, I'm sure our camp director will find a suitable punishment for you, mortal, half-blood, or immortal. Dr. Banner and I will be acting as medics. The winners will have bragging rights on this planet, and on all others. I believe that is enough of a prize. Heroes, this is additional training for you. We will be dealing with things we have never dealt with before more and more often in the coming months. Avengers," Chiron paused, and then shrugged, "have fun." And with that, he left us to set up our battle stations.

Before the game, me, Annabeth, and all the other senior counselors had made extensive plans. It was strange, all of us being on the same team for capture the flag, but it was good having a variety of strengths to play on.  
We had placed Will and his Apollo brothers in the trees. They were our eyes in the sky, and were instructed to shoot down anyone they could. Apparently, celestial bronze could hurt the Norse gods too. The Demeter cabin was in the trees with them, ready to bend nature to their will.  
We posted all of Hermes cabin right on our border, acting as a human shield against anyone who tried to break through. They stood with the Hephaestus cabin, who had layed out traps of Greek fire and carefully hidden pits, in case any of the members of the opposing team made it through our border.  
The Athena cabin was on inner defense. We knew that no matter how strong our outer wall was, someone would make it through. They spread out, covering our entire ground, with their main base where we his the flag.

The Ares cabin and everyone else was on offense. Their job was to barge into the other team's territory, and attack anyone they saw. When I had given Clarisse her orders, she looked excited. She couldn't wait to have revenge on the people who had hijacked her battle.  
Annabeth, Nico, the Stoll brothers, and Butch, the head of Iris cabin, and I had a seperate mission. Our sole job was to find the flag, and attack anyone who got in our way.  
I thought it was a pretty good setup. I didn't know how much space 5 people could cover. I constantly had to remind myself that it wasn't just 5 random people; it was two gods, a superhuman, a Camp Half-blood trained demigod, and two trained assasins. But still. I was feeling pretty confident.

I was standing at the border with Annabeth when the conch horn blew. Annabeth reached for her invisibility cap.  
"Good luck, seaweed brain." She said, giving me a peck on the check.  
I grinned. "You too, wise girl." She pulled on her hat. I raised my sword and got ready to charge. And then all Hades broke loose.

I had already run deep into the other team territory, to far to see what was happening at the border, but later on, the Hermes cabin told me that about twenty or so Loki duplicates appeared in front of them, and attacked. Many of the clones went down from the Greek fire, and some other fell into the pits, making them easy targets, and they apparently weren't that good fighters. But somewhere in the mix was the real Loki, and he was like a machine. He kept on appearing and disappearing, never staying in one spot for too long. Any time someone got close enough to do some actual damage, he would vanish, and then reappear with a huge grin on his face. It drove them all half mad.

The Apollo and Demeter cabins didn't fair well either. In the middle of all the chaos, the archer guy slipped through the border, and began shooting the demigods off their trees. Stark was flying overhead, sawing off branches with campers in them, and scouting for the flag. Thankfully, we had prepared for this, and placed it somewhere that was visible, but not from up high.

Back on the Avengers ground, our offense team was met by Thor and the Russian assassin. Between the two of them, they knocked out about half of the Ares cabin, and most of the other cabins. I tried to intervene on a few of the fights, but there wasn't really much I could do. At one point, I saw Thor and Clarisse locked in an electricity battle with Clarisse's spear, and Thor's hammer, Meowern, or something like that. I decided to stay out of it, and let them battle it out.

After a while of running, I came to the stream that runs through the forest. I grinned upon seeing it. While it was the place of my absolute humiliation in my first game of capture the flag, (thanks, Clarisse) it was also the place where my dad claimed it. Ah, happy memories. I trudged along for a little while longer, feeling almost bored. I hadn't seen many of my other teammates in a wile. Some had most likely gotten stuck in the traps that I had avoided, but it still seemed eerily quite.

Suddenly, I looked up, and saw the flag. It was hanging on one of the lower branches of a tree only a couple of feet away. But where was the person defending it? I reached out for the flag, and immediately, got hit over the head and knocked down to the ground by something heavy. I groaned and peeled my face of the forest floor. I stared up at a tall man dresses in red, white in blue, shield in hand. Of course they put the captain here. He had the best defense against our swords. I mentally sighed. This was not going to be easy.  
I jumped off the ground and picked up Riptide from where it had fallen.  
"Ready for a rematch, Captain?" I asked.  
He grinned. "Always." And then he struck.  
Someone, presumably Stark, had gotten the man a Celestial bronze sword, which he handled with surprising grace.  
"Have you ever fought with one of these before?" I asked, between strikes, my breath short. Gods, this man was good, and I was getting tired.  
"Nope." The super soldier answered, slipping in a slash towards my upper arm. I knocked the sword away, trying to disarm him, but his grip on his sword was firm. "I never even thought of using a sword before today, when Stark brought me one. He said that everyone on the team had to have weapons made from this metal. He made Hawkeye cover his precious arrows with the stuff, and all of Natasha's bullets are covered in the stuff, too."  
I winced. Not out of pain, but from the surprise that all of the campers no doubt had when they got hit by one of the arrows or bullets.  
We continued fighting for a few minutes in silence, each one of us barely landing a blow on the other.  
"So Stark is the leader of your dysfunctional band of misfits?" I asked, breaking the silence.  
Rogers shrugged, and blocked one of my blows with his shield. "Not normally. But in this particular incident, he's in his comfort zone, and all of us are dealing with stuff we never new existed." He thought for a minute. "Actually, most of the time we're dealing with stuff that I never knew existed until a few months ago."  
I snorted. "That how I felt. I was twelve, and suddenly was introduced to a whole new world where I wasn't supposed to be born, and had to rescue a lightning bolt from the Lord of the Dead himself before my uncle started World War III."  
The captain gave me a quizzical look. "Is it always like that around here?"  
"What? Crazy?" he nodded.  
"Uhhh, yeah, pretty much." I said. "But you get used to it."  
"So what about you?" he asked. "Are you the leader?"  
"Nah, I'm not smart enough." I answered. "I leave that to my girlfriend."  
"Who?" Rogers asked, but before I could answer, I heard a clang, and he fell unconscious at my feet. I grinned. "Thanks. I was getting a bit tired."  
Annabeth removed her hat. "No problem, Seaweed Brain. Now lets grab this flag and get out of here!" And so we ran.  
Needless to say, despite everything, we won. I couldn't help but grin as I heard the god of thunder lament, "We have been defeated by a band of Midguardan children!"  
I couldn't help but laugh. It probably would seem pretty pathetic for him, back home, when they heard that he lost. His brother didn't seem to mind, though. I saw him in the infirmary helping heal some of the wounded campers, and much to his embarrassment, Hawkeye. He apparently had been ambushed by a daughter of Aphrodite who had stayed back in the trees he had almost reached the flag. I don't know what she did to him, but since he couldn't have nectar or ambrosia, he was stuck in the infirmary for the next six hours. It was pretty hilarious.  
I didn't stay around that long to celebrate, though. After the long game, and my fight with the Captain, I was done for the night. I had forgotten how much sleep I needed after a battle like this. I headed back to my cabin soon after the victory, hoping to catch a good night of dreamless sleep.  
Unfortunately, just as I was drifting off, my privacy was invaded. I sat up in my bed, annoyed.  
"What are you doing here, Stark?" I asked in an irritated voice. "I need sleep."  
"Oh, I'm just here to offer you congratulations." Stark answered in a hearty tone.  
I narrowed my eyes. "No, you're not. What do you want?"  
He sighed. "So jaded. But seriously, I'm just here to apologize."  
I mock gasped. "Apologize? The great Tony Stark is apologizing?"  
"Hey, this is a once in a lifetime thing, Jackson." He growled. "Don't waste of it. You might want to record this, byt the way, because some day, this will be worth millions." He took a deep breath.

"I, Tony Stark, apologize to you, for A. trying to kill you B. trying to act like I understood what I missed in the Battle for Manhattan and what would have happened if I was there and not in some cave in Afghanistan in a cave, under armed guard, fighting for my life," I glared at him, and he continued on. "and C. for not giving you the respect you deserve. You have truly earned the title hero."  
I stared at him for a minute. "Wow. That was almost sincere and slightly touching. Now, who from the Hermes cabin were you stupid enough to play dare poker with?"  
Stark smirked. "I haven't been away from camp that long. But apparently, Gramps and Gran weren't to appreciative of the fact that I went AWOL either, so I've been ordered, errr, asked, to help out here on weekends, when I'm not busy, you know, saving the world."  
I stared at him. "They're making you teach?"  
Stark nodded, though he didn't look too happy about it. "And some of the others from the team said they might stop by from time to time, help train you guys and whatever. I think the Capsicle seemed particularly excited that he's even going to be allowed back. He seems to like you guys, for reasons that I cannot possibly fathom. You're all just bunches of sniveling brats."  
I raised an eyebrow. "You sound like Mr. D."  
Stark turned pale. "Oh gods, I do." He injected a look of mock terror into his eyes. "I've been here too long already!"  
"Well, you might as well get used to us, seeing as you're going to be here pretty often." I paused for a moment. "I would welcome you, but I think 'Welcome home' is a bit more appropriate."  
Stark got an almost far away look in his eyes then. "Yeah," he whispered softly. "Home."


End file.
